Serena Williams won the clash between two of the hottest players on the WTA Tour with a straight-set victory over Swiss Timea Bacsinszky at Indian Wells on Wednesday.
World number one Williams extended her match win streak to 15 by beating the red-hot Bacsinszky 7-5, 6-3 on the Tennis Garden stadium court.
Bacsinszky's fourth round win over Elina Svitolina was her 15th consecutive match win, including Fed Cup play.
Williams now faces third seeded Simona Halep after the Romanian beat Spain's Carla Suarez in three sets.
Williams got past her in one hour and 25 minutes. She belted seven aces but also had four double faults and said she needs to step up her game.
Halep came storming back from an opening set loss to beat Suarez 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 and advance to her second straight Indian Wells semi-final.
Halep has gone three sets in three of her four matches in Indian Wells. But she says she doesn't mind the extra time on the court because it allows her to perfect her game.
Halep hit two aces, committed three double faults and broke her opponent eight times in the close to two-hour match.
Williams leads Halep in their head-to-head series four game to one but the loss wasn't that long ago. Halep beat her 6-0, 6-2 at the 2014 WTA Tour finals in Singapore.
